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| Indian Avro transport aircraft |
By Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — A reassessment of Air Force priorities has jeopardized India's first effort to produce military aircraft in the domestic private sector.
The US $3.5 billion program would have replaced aging Avro transport aircraft, a tender for which was issued in 2013, but new Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has urged that weapon purchases be prioritized because major hikes in defense spending are not expected in the near future, said a Defence Ministry source.
The government decided in July 2014 that the tender should be reserved for domestic private sector companies as production partners and state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) was excluded from the program. Only Airbus Defence and Space, proposing the C-295 in a tie up with domestic private sector major Tata Advanced Systems, has filed a bid for the program.
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